


Now That You're 100

by CourageousPineapple



Category: Captain America - All Media Types
Genre: Bucky's 100th Birthday, Gen, Happy Birthday MCU Bucky Barnes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-18
Updated: 2017-03-18
Packaged: 2018-10-06 22:19:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10345737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CourageousPineapple/pseuds/CourageousPineapple
Summary: It's Bucky's 100th birthday, and there's a giant envelope leaning against their apartment door.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Let's just pretend everyone is friends again and Bucky isn't in cryo in Wakanda.

  
The enormous golden envelope was waiting for them, leaning against the door to their apartment. The smiles from a pleasant afternoon out slid off their faces as Steve and Bucky shared a look, then approached it with a caution normally reserved for things that might go “boom!” Then again, who was to say the envelope wasn’t one of those things after all?

It was hand-addressed to “Manchur. Candi.” There was nothing else adorning the heavyweight paper. 

“Stark,” the two super soldiers announced in unison, exchanging eye rolls. Steve sighed and unlocked their door, leaving Bucky to carry in the monster envelope. 

“If this is an invitation to a party, I’m gonna be mighty unhappy,” Bucky warned as they settled on the couch in the living room. “I’ve already said I don’t want one.” 

“I don’t think even Tony is that reckless. You made it very clear how you felt about anything close to a party.” 

“Good.” 

“Even if this just happens to be a real red-letter day,” Steve muttered, as if he didn’t know that Bucky’s hearing was almost as enhanced as his own. Bucky’s glare was as objectively terrifying as ever, but Steve had built up some degree of immunity to it. 

“It’s just a birthday. Everyone has ‘em –- it’s nothing special.” 

“It’s only your 100th birthday, jerk. Nothing special at all.” Steve’s pout was over the top but had a layer of truth underneath. “Open the ridiculous envelope.” 

“Fine, punk.” Using more force than necessary, Bucky pulled apart the oversized envelope. He was rewarded with a cloud of blue balloon-shaped confetti and a blue envelope – which he caught before it hit the floor, despite the surprise. Steve giggled at the confetti in Bucky’s hair, on his shirt, his lap, and even a few pieces caught between plates on his left arm, to say nothing of the amount on the couch and floor. “You’re helpin’ to clean this up.” Bucky was now wearing his ‘I’ve just finished sucking on a pound of lemons’ face. 

“Sure, Buck,” Steve said, still grinning as the former Winter Soldier used a metal fingertip to open the blue envelope much more gently than he had the giant golden one. As Bucky pulled free yet another sealed envelope, this one purple, it dislodged a cascade of purple balloon-shaped confetti from inside the blue envelope. 

Bucky was annoyed with himself for not noticing the presence of the purple confetti, camouflaged as it was by matching the exact shade of the nested purple envelope. Steve, on the other hand, had to fight back more laughter. The Star Spangled Man wasn’t sure which was funnier: the prank or his oldest friend’s evident self-disgust. 

“Are you kidding me?” Bucky groused as he continued to open more nested envelopes, each one booby-trapped with confetti color-matched to the smaller envelope within. Inside the purple envelope was green confetti and a sealed green envelope; inside the green one was a confetti/sealed envelope set in bright red. And no matter how carefully he extracted an envelope, at least some of its accompanying confetti came with it and joined their brethren on his lap, the couch and the floor. 

On the outside of the red envelope, Tony had written ‘Since you didn’t let me throw you a party.’ Inside it was the actual card (oversized but not outrageously so), along with yellow confetti. 

The card’s front was a sea of blue, purple, green, red and yellow balloons surrounding the word ‘Congratulations!’ With an odd sense of foreboding, Bucky opened the card. ‘Congratulations’ was for a baby shower or a job promotion, not a birthday. 

“Now that you’re 100,” the card declared, “you’re officially an antique! Happy birthday, RoboCop!” 

Steve cracked up again, unable to hold back the laughter any longer. Even another fearsome glare didn’t quiet him. 

“Yeah, enjoy it while you can, Stevie.” The glare transformed into Bucky’s ‘Payback is sweet’ face with an extra helping of ‘evil grin.’ There was no immunity from this look -– it was flat-out terrifying. “Because it’s your turn next year. And let me be the first to congratulate you on your red-letter day... Captain Antique.” 

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this on Bucky's 100th birthday, but when it wasn't ready in time to post that day, I decided to take the time to really polish it before posting. I hope I have succeeded in some small way. Happy Birthday MCU Bucky Barnes!


End file.
